He is not obliged to calculate whether what he casts into this general circulation is purchased by a countryman or by a foreigner; whether the notes he receives are given to him by a Frenchman or an Englishman, or whether the articles which he procures through means of this money are manufactured on this or the other side of the Rhine or the Pyrenees.

One thing is certain; that each individual finds an exact balance between what he casts in and what he withdraws from the great common reservoir; and if this be true of each individual, it is not less true of the entire nation.
The only difference between these two cases is, that in the last, each individual has open to him a larger market both for his sales and his purchases, and has, consequently, a more favorable opportunity of making both to advantage.
The objection advanced against us here, is, that if all were to combine in not withdrawing from circulation the produce from any one individual, he, in his turn, could withdraw nothing from the mass.

The same, too, would be the case with regard to a nation.
Our answer is: If a nation can no longer withdraw any thing from the mass of circulation, neither will it any longer cast any thing into it.
It will work for itself.

It will be obliged to submit to what, in advance, you wish to force upon it, viz., _Isolation_.

And here you have the ideal of the prohibitive system.
Truly, then, is it not ridiculous enough that you should inflict upon it now, and unnecessarily, this system, merely through fear that some day or other it might chance to be subjected to it without your assistance?
XVI.
OBSTRUCTED RIVERS PLEADING FOR THE PROHIBITIONISTS.
Some years since, being at Madrid, I went to the meeting of the Cortes.
The subject in discussion was a proposed treaty with Portugal, for improving the channel of the Douro.